minimum wage

noun

the lowest wage payable to employees in general or to designated employees as fixed by law or by union agreement.

Origin

1855-60

minimum-wage

[min-uh-muh m-weyj] /ˈmɪn ə məmˈweɪdʒ/

adjective

of or pertaining to a minimum wage:

minimum-wage demands.

paid or earning a minimum wage:

a minimum-wage worker.

paying a minimum wage:

a minimum-wage job.

Examples from the web for minimum wage

There should not even be a minimum wage in my opinion.
He worked twelve-hour shifts ten days in a row, and earned thirteen hundred dollars a month, almost ten times the minimum wage.
One way to look at it is to say that that's roughly what a worker earning minimum wage and working full time earns in a year.
Unions are also the principal lobby for a minimum wage, which tends to improve the distribution of wages generally.
At the end of the year they had often earned less for their efforts than farm workers paid minimum wage.
These are people with full-time jobs who make slightly more than the minimum wage-the working poor.
Not to mention the laundry list of duties employers are looking for, barely paying above minimum wage.
It could pay workers less than the minimum wage, so that private employment would always be more appealing.
Maybe they should focus on the minimum wage, which has declined in real value for the last few decades.
In the same amount of time they could make several times that much working for minimum wage.

British Dictionary definitions for minimum wage

noun

the lowest wage that an employer is permitted to pay by law or union contract

minimum wage in Culture

The lowest legal hourly wage.